Welcome to the 13th Game Day Fire Drill, for this, Calgary’s 61st game of the season on Feb. 27, 2009.

Funny story, I'm not going to see this game tonight, and that's likely for the best, isn't it?

Minnesota games are boring and the outcome is more or less inevitable, especially when the game is in Calgary: a W.

Yawn.

I'm bored just thinking about it. So let's try to spice up these games, or at least make them a little more even, with some fun suggestions that I came up with just now to seriously hinder the Flames' chances:

The Flames have to play in their bare feet. They won't be so eager to go to the boards if they're gonna get their feet stepped on, will they?

Jarome Iginla has to play with a blindfold on. Iggy scores more goals than anyone in the league ever against the Wild. And tonight he'll have extra motivation since he's two goals from 400 and three points from the Flames' all-time lead.

When:

Where:

Pengrowth Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta.

Calgary is 21-7-4 at home this year, and have won 20 of the last 22 against the Wild at the SaddleDome. The Wild are 12-13-0 on the road, and have earned two points, both from overtime losses, against the Flames in three games this season. They lost the only other game in Calgary 2-1 in regulation.

What (to hate about the Wild):

"The State of Hockey" — I guess I'll give the bad news to Massachusetts, which has produced some of the greatest American hockey players in the history of the sport. Jeremy Roenick and Tom Barasso are from Boston. Mike Eruzione, who captained the Miracle on Ice 1980 US Olympic team (the most important team in the history of sport), is from Winthrop. Who do you have? Oh yeah, Phil Housley. *sarcastic applause*

Doug Risebrough — Like I have to explain to you why he's such a d-bag. That stint as coach and GM was noooot so good.

The Marian Gaborik situation — It is my firm belief that Marian Gaborik would be healthy as a race horse were he with any other organization but the Wild. They're trying to drive down his asking price for when free agency rolls around on July 1 so they can keep him on the cheap. Thalium poisoning or something, I bet. Munchausen by Proxy syndrome!

10,000 lakes — It's too goddamn many. Fill in some of them.

Why?

Because unlike Edmonton fans, you have a touch-tone phone like a real human being. Enjoy the game and let's work for a better tomorrow in the comments section.

Yer ol' buddy Lambert is handsome and great and everyone loves him. Also you can visit his regular blog at The Two-Line Pass or follow him on Twitter. Lucky you!

TLP, no offense, but you should give it up. Kent got over 100 posts on his pregame article for this game while you got one. It is just hard to respect a 'flames fan' from Boston. You have been a disaster so far, please give it up and end the pain. Don't delete this comment, it deserves to be seen. Have a good one.

the difference being that we have to build an audience from scratch, more or less, where Matchsticks and Gasoline is part of a blog community that is already around tens of thousands of members strong.

on further reflection, it's obvious what happened. someone who has some kind of bone to pick with TLP (and, here, i presume an oiler fan because i've never seen such idiocy on any flames site ever, but perhaps i'm stereotyping) was bored and wasted at 4am and thought it would be "funny" to post comments as other people. i also presume i was a target because i mistakenly thought flamesnation and oilersnation were two entirely seperate sites, and was surprised at the number of oilercentric comments on a previous entry (and posted a comment as such).

i like a little high-end intellectually bickering, but people who comment on flames blogsites never attack each other personally (at least, i've never seen it). people often respectfully disagree, and then there's a discussion that goes back-and-forth, but it never reaches the point of lame-a** comments like "you suck."

is this what is to be expected from flamesnation ? is this, essentially, the precedent set by oilersnation ?

Spoken like someone who’s never stumbled into the special-needs classroom known as “Calgary Puck.”

hahaha tis true: i've never dipped my toes into the waters of calgarypuck.... mostly because in the last two years of prospect camps, i've had "conversations" with fans who regularly invite me to join in over there. these are folks who say stuff like "kris chucko is AWESOME."

thanks for deleting his (i presume male, although he wrongly presumed me to be, as well) comments.

Hey TLP,
Just to let you know I (and quite a few of my co-workers) look forward to your GDFD - "Flamesfan" and "Matty" seem like a couple of CalgaryPuck "shift-disturbers", don't give them the attention they crave, that's what their cats are for :)
No disrespect to Kent and WI (who provide continual great analysis), it's nice to get an educated view from someone outside Cowtown.